Bill Shankly salutes the Kop
Bill Shankly is one of my favorite ever sporting heroes – “football’s Muhammed Ali” – as he’s described in a brilliant article in The Guardian today looking back at his inspirational life 50 years since he took over at Liverpool. I often remind people that Liverpool poached Shankly (along with Denis Law!) from Huddersfield Town in 1959 when he was manager there.
Shankly then went on to transform Liverpool from a lowly second division team into the footballing giants they are today. If only he could have done the same with Huddersfield before he left them.
Until reading this article, I didn’t realise how Liverpool’s directors shunned the poor man after in his retirement after he realised he simply couldn’t live without football. Shankly’s memory also serves as a sad reminder of how football has changed in the past 50 years. As one commenter on the article says:
It’s sad to see what Liverpool have become. A corporate brand where the fans are praying to be taken over by an Arab billionaires,in preference to US billionaires. The city fan base eroded to the extent that at Derby matches, Everton fans can…with some justification…hang ‘EFC welcomes Liverpool supporters to Liverpool !’.
